I have a few plants in full sun and I haven't watered since late spring. Wow, did I just admit that. LOL, only strong survive my full sun areas. We are going through a major drought here also. The lake in our area is at record lows.

My full sun plants that are still blooming today are:
Burgundy Gailardia
Salvia Victoria
Salvia Blue Bedder
Leadwort
Irebis Candytuft I never knew this little plant smelled so wonderful till it has grown into a three to four foot clump.

Shasta Daisy becky isn't blooming but I let it go to seed this year and if I hadn't it would be blooming. This is one tough plant that I love and it is evergreen here.

From what I have witnessed without rain for more than 3 weeks and no watering from me, here is my list. :)

Petunia Laura Bush
Salvia Splendens
Salvia Guaranitica
Spirea
Chelone
Asters
Morning Light - it's a grass
Wine & Rose Weigela - beautiful dark maroon leaves
Tithonias - I really love the flowers. I wish there was a shorter version like at 2 ft.
Cosmos

Neil, there is a dwarf tithonia called Fiesta Del Sol. I've never tried them. Does anyone know if it blooms earlier than the tall ones? When I grew the tall ones they didn't bloom 'till Sept, then would soon be killed by frost. I haven't grown them in several years, but they were pretty.

{{gwi:260825}}

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Fiesta Del Sol

We had 8 weeks where the weather hit 90+ degrees every day, and are very low on rainfall here. My winners are, in their best order of bloom:

Gaura
Zinnias
Portulaca
Dianthus
Rudbeckia
Montauk Daisy

Canna survived, but got munched by JBs & probably some other nasty insects I'm not on to yet, and the blooms were puny. A lot of stuff I put in the ground shriveled up and died.

Japanese beetles do a number on my canna's also.

What kind of dianthus do you have, drippy?? I have grown dianthus barbatus and I am going to try dianthus plumarius this year.

Through the horribly hot summer we had, the following plants did well:

Echinacea
Joe Pye Weed
Feverfew
Butterfly bush
Melampodium

Everything else pretty much lived and died depending on when I watered or we had big thunderstorms. Tought love for those plants is the best thing!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll google and consider each.

A few weeks ago I planted a dwarf Joe Pye. I thought they needed a lot of water???

Does gaura stand up well to wind and heavy spring rain storms? I have a lot of problem with things being knocked over, even with things like rudbeckia and coneflowers?

Karen

Some have already been mentioned that did well for me, but I'll "second" them.

Echinacea
Rudbeckia
Joe Pye Weed
Feverfew
Sedums
Ironweed
Marigolds
Blackberry Lily
Tithonia
Caryopteris
Butterfly Bush

Plus most of the ornamental grasses and everything with glaucus foliage like lamb's ear, rose campion, lavender, sage, etc.

My Joe Pye Weed seems to have more of an issue with dry soil when it is really hot. In the heat of summer it tends to droop and some watering will perk it up. It seems to be drought tolerant as far as it won't die on you, but it prefers it moist.

We had an unusually hot & dry summer here in PA too...plants in my garden that held up well were:

Salvia nemorosa 'Snowhill' (amazingly tough & still blooming! Never watered)

Heuchera villosa 'Bronze Wave' (super-tough, never watered)

Aromatic Aster/Aster oblongifolius) 'October Skies' (it got HUGE this year, still blooming, never watered)

Russian sage/Perovskia atriplicifolia) (my 1st year with this one, still small-ish but it seemed very drought-tolerant)

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' (Sedum telephium) (generally indestructible for me, never watered)

New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) Lots of blooms this year, never watered)

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' (Rudbeckia fulgida) (watered a little if the leaves looked wilty, but generally OK)

Karen,

Thanks for the smaller version of tithonia. My tithonia(about 4 ft tall) started blooming early August. It's still blooming today. :) I direct sowed them I think last week of May or 1st week of June.

Oh yeah, sedum autumn joy and russian sage. I see it everyday. The russian sage still has flowers and I have harvested too last week. Alchemilla is still good but with burns on the outer part of the leaves due to frost.

Saw these 2 last night while throwing siberian iris seeds. LOL. Not sure if it's going to germinate, hahaha.
- sweet potato vine
- safari primrose

I didn't water at all this summer (was gone for 2 weeks in July anyway) and we had an extended drought. We finally got a good drenching rain on September 30. My yard actually looks better now than it did for most of the summer. The plants that did best -

Gaillardias - both perennial and annual varieties
Sedums
Agastache foeniculum
Salvia coccinea - Lady in Red is doing great, even now
Salvia Hot Lips (no seeds, though)
Salvia Greggii
Salvia guaranitica
Salvia regeliana
Echinacea, though some died
Dianthus
Hibiscus Texas Red & White
Caryopteris
Buddleia
Balloon flower
Tithonia
Marguerite daisies Kelwayi
Cleome
Ratibida/Mexican Hats
Rudbeckia - some died

Becky

Hi Becky,

Can I have few seeds of your salvias? :D

I just wanted to add Rudbeckias and calendula to these lists. Mine rocked this year.

Countrycarolyn, my dianthus was an annual - Raspberry Parfait - but I noticed several other folks around here seemed to have dianthus of various kinds blooming all summer. I didn't get much sown this year, as we were moving again (hopefully for the final time for a looooong while), but I plan to sow a lot of dianthus this winter. I love, love, love sweet william.

Drippy, Well I have some dianthus barbatus cherry parfait it is a Biennial that blooms one year, first year only puts on foliage. You may just receive some of those seeds in the round robin, lol along with something else I noticed you were wanting. I won't say which one that is though, I got to have a few surprises for people.

My calendula did wonderful also!! Along with my irebis.

My calendula did very badly this year. It was awesome last year. I now believe that when seedlings/plants are just 1 inch apart, it will not grow well. The calendula I was talking about are all volunteers. Some seedlings are just half inch apart only. :P

I purposely did it to learn more about plants.

I actually do not plant my calendula. First year I dsed it, by just tossing it out in the bed I didn't even press it in the dirt. I collected some seed but not all and just left the rest. It is total reseed and some of my plants are so close they look connected. They do just fine for me. I let them totally reseed again this year. I don't believe I collected 1 seed from it. I will see what happens next year.

With regard to the salvia seeds, I should have plenty from Lady in Red and may have some from regeliana and greggii. You have to catch them at the right time! Hot lips never produces any seeds - I think it needs a specific pollinator. The guarantica (black & blue and Argentina Skies are the ones I have) produce very few seeds, and I didn't even look for them this year.

I will look over the weekend and see what there is, and will be happy to share what I find.

Becky

Thanks Becky!!! :D

Brutal summer here with over 90 days of 90+ and very very little rain - my best plants were

agastache
amaranthus
annual vinca
zinnias
salvias

they will get top billing next year in my gardens along with more shrubs which we started by propagation this year - we have over 40 hydrangeas started (about 6 different varieties) and doing good .....

Lynne

We had very bad drought this summer! My Zinnias and Hostas gave me the least trouble.

My Ice Plant, Verbena and African Daises have all done very well, survived the coldest winter I've seen here, down to 18 degrees F. (- 8 degrees C.) even! And hot weather as hot as 120 degrees!

My Calendulas have always survived just fine, but need a little more water. My Calendulas had flowers fully bloomed this year on the day the temperature got down to 18 degrees F.!!! I couldn't believe it! Other garden also survived that extreme cold (Verbena, African Daisies, Dusty Miller, Ice Plant, Kohlrabi, Chinese Cabbage, Radishes, Stinging Nettle and a few others.

Potatoes died that day (18 degrees F.). Geraniums died back, but now they are coming back stronger than ever. I thought the African Daisies would not make it, but they pulled through (just barely).

Looks like were in for another summer drought! I bought 7 roses this winter. I just wish it would rain!

We are still behind with our rain. Normally we get around 12 inches of rain each year. I think we've only had around 8 inches so far. We won't get much more rain (mostly just very light sprinkles) until November or December.

I'm working on a huge compost pile, adding everything I can (except grass!). I'm trimming lots of my garden plants, and keeping the clipping for the compost pile, adding everything I can from the kitchen, including the cardboard egg cartons, newspaper, cardboard boxes, sticks, and when my summer plants are ready to pull up, I'll add the Tomato plants with the tomatoes, Sunflower plants, and everything else .....

OT if discussion is plants for drought that can be wintersown. Excited about my new hummingbird plant which needs to be kept dry - got it at a meeting. What impresses me is how bugs are leaving it alone but eating all the plants around it. Called Hummingbird Plant, Uruguayan Firecracker Plant, or Dicliptera suberecta, z7a-10. Reported to attract both hummers and butterflies with red tubular flowers. I divided it in 3 and each section has grown nicely. Should bloom later on.

Plants sold out at Annie's, nice pictures